**I do not own Voltron: Legendary Defender!

Where am I? It's dark…And cold…Holy crow, why is everything so damn cold?!

Mari instinctively tried to wrap her numb arms around her chest to keep the heat in, but her entire body felt unnaturally heavy. Her limbs were like lead and she couldn't move a single muscle. It set her into a panic, trapped in the daunting darkness with no way to escape or defend herself. She felt incredibly vulnerable and was tempted to call out for help when it suddenly felt like she was falling. Not even a second later, she was caught by a pair of arms and something warm and soft was wrapped around her. Slowly, feeling began to return to her limp limbs and she tried to support her own weight, now aware of the sleek and smooth floor beneath her bare feet. But her legs were quivering too much and her knees instantly buckled beneath her. Thankfully the arms holding her tightened, preventing her from collapsing and keeping her upright.

"It's okay, I've got you," an all too familiar voice murmured and her heart nearly leapt into her throat.

Prying open her bleary eyes and taking in her surroundings, Mari realized she was in the healing chamber, wrapped in a blanket and being embraced by her brother. The others were standing nearby, relieved grins on their faces.

"W…Wha's goin' on?" she slurred tiredly, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. "What're we all doin' here?"

"You just came out of a healing pod," Allura explained. "You were in there all night."

"What?!" Mari's eyes flew open, now wide awake. She tried to stand on her own again, but her legs gave way and she cursed to herself as she slumped against Shiro. "Stupid sleep chamber knees…Why was I in there?"

"You got hurt obviously," Lance said, and she shot him an annoyed look that said, 'No duh!'

"I mean what happened to me that required you guys to put in one of the pods?"

"Well…Well what's the last thing you remember happening?" Shiro asked, carefully guiding her to the floor so she could sit down.

"Um…" Mari frowned and hugged her knees to her chest. Her head had begun pounding with a mild headache and she instinctively massaged her temples, as if it would help her think. "Ummmmm…We were…at the Arusian village helping with repairs. We landed and everyone split up to do their own thing. I was sweeping at one point, but…after that everything is blank."

"So you don't remember anything? Not what you did or said after that?" Keith asked, and Mari could swear he sounded a bit…relieved, maybe?

"Not a thing," she shook her head slowly. "Why? What happened? Did I do something embarrassing?"

"More like stupid," he muttered in reply and she frowned at him.

"It was much more reckless than it was stupid," Pidge quickly chimed in.

"Uh huh!" Hunk nodded twice in agreement. "You nearly scared us to death!"

"Yeah, don't ever do that again, young lady!" Lance scolded and Mari resisted the urge to roll her eyes at him.

"Okay, but what exactly did I do?" she pressed.

"You…fell off the cliffs near the village," Shiro explained gently.

"WHAT?"

"You hit your head pretty badly. You were bleeding and had a concussion along with cracked ribs and a skull fracture." He paused, taking note of how quickly she had paled in the past few seconds and he immediately shook his head, smiling reassuringly as he hurriedly added, "But you're completely better now and that's all that matters."

Mari subconsciously raised a hand to the back of her head, half-expecting to find an open wound still there. But other than the minor headache, there were no more indicators that she had ever obtained a head injury at all.

"How did I fall off the cliffs?" she asked, giving her brother a suspicious look. "What was I even doing near them?"

"An Arusian's crystal fell over the edge and got stuck on a ledge. She and Klaizap asked us—you to help them get it back," Keith said. "You were climbing down when you slipped."

"I've scaled a bunch of the cliffs near the Garrison and I never fell. There's no way I would've just 'slipped'," Mari scoffed and Keith's face contorted in fury.

"That's the same arrogant attitude that got you into trouble, you moron!" he snapped. "Just because it never happened back on Earth doesn't mean it couldn't happen here! You slipped and you fell and you could have died!"

The room went quiet as his words hung in the air, and Mari just stared at him in surprise. His hands were clenched at his sides and he scowled before looking away, defensively crossing his arms over his chest. Although Keith would never admit it, he had been genuinely worried about her, Mari realized. And looking around at the sincerely concerned demeanors of the others, they had been just as worried it seemed.

"Ahem," Coran cleared his throat, breaking the tense silence as he spoke. "I believe the reason you lost your balance and fell was from shock. The Arusian's relic that you were retrieving was a Putaverunt Crystal, a memory container with magical properties. And when you touched it, it reacted to your weakened state of mind and pulled several of your most important memories out."

"It stole my memories?!" Mari shrilled and her hands flew up to hold her head, as if to protect it from being pilfered by the crystal again.

"No, no, no, not stolen," Coran shook his head. "It's a process of duplicating and extracting the memories, with the crystal holding the new copies. It's a rather painful and unnerving experience, but you haven't lost a single one of your memories. Well, except for the ones from the past few vargas, but I believe that is due to the blow you received to your head."

Taking a moment to double check, Mari sighed in mild relief; she could still remember her past and everyone who had shaped it, thank goodness.

"So where is this Puta-whatever crystal?" she asked. "Did you give it back to that Arusian woman?"

"Not yet," Coran said. "We're holding onto it for the time being."

"Why?"

"Well…" he drawled, his voice rising in pitch as he nervously glanced at the others for help. They looked just as reluctant to answer though and that immediately sent off alarms in Mari's head.

"What?" she pressed. "It didn't break did it?"

"Not exactly," Allura hesitantly came to her advisor's aid. "It's still in one piece. However it was full of several of your memories and we needed to extract them. We shall return the crystal after the sun rises. Then we can finally leave Arus."

A rush of excitement coursed through Mari at the sound of that. They were finally leaving Arus—they'd be entering outer space again. The interstellar traveling she had always dreamt of doing would finally, finally begin! She couldn't help but beam giddily and she quickly rose to her feet, her strength having returned for the most part.

"Why wait? Let's return the crystal and launch already," she said, nearly bouncing up and down with excitement. She shrugged off the blanket around her shoulders and began to head towards the door.

"Hold on a second," Shiro intervened, moving to block her exit. "Before any of that, we seriously need to talk."

Mari's brilliant smile immediately disappeared and was replaced with an irritated scowl. "Why do you keep saying that?" she groaned. "I keep telling you, there's nothing to—"

"Yes, there is," he cut her off, his tone startlingly assertive and stern. Shiro rose to his full height, his eyes narrowed at her and his jaw set. He was daring her to say otherwise, and he was ready for whatever tactic she would try to use to worm her way out of the conversation. But no matter what, he wasn't going to let her get away this time.

Not wavered in the slightest by his demeanor, Mari pursed her lips tightly together and folded her arms over her chest, simply glaring at him. She wasn't going to let him intimidate her; there was nothing to say so she wouldn't say a word.

"We saw the memories that were collected in the crystal," Shiro got straight to the point, and he didn't miss the look of fear that flashed across her features.

"You what?" she barely managed, her heart rate rising along with her increasing dread.

"They were just a few of your strongest memories, but yes, we saw important parts of your life," Allura confirmed guiltily. "It was my idea to look at them. I just wanted to help you with your inner turmoils and I thought looking into your past would give us some helpful insight. We shouldn't have done so without your permission and I apologize."

"Yeah, you really shouldn't have!" Mari snorted, her blood beginning to boil hotter by the second. "What exactly did you all see?"

"Many, many painful things," the princess admitted quietly.

"Your mean neighbors," Hunk chimed in solemnly.

"The car accident," Pidge murmured.

"Shiro's funeral," Lance added.

"Your mom," Keith muttered and Mari bristled at that one.

"Those were personal and private memories!" she snapped, her cheeks turning red and her whole body shaking with unleashed fury. "How could you all just—UGH!"

Angry tears pricked the corners of her eyes and the lump in her throat prevented her from saying more without the waterworks turning on. She hated how everyone was giving her such pitiful looks, still discernible despite her rapidly blurring vision. Everything that she had tried to hide, everything that she absolutely hated about herself had been shared with all of them, these people who she knew so little about. And that awful year that Shiro had been gone…Everything that she hadn't wanted him to know about that time had been dropped on him all at once, the newest burdens to his countless others, no doubt. He knew now how selfish she had been, blaming her misfortune on him and deeming her crushed dreams a greater loss than the disappearance and assumed death of her only brother.

Her head pounding and her guilt weighing her down, Mari cupped her flushed face in her hands and knelt on the floor, ignoring the sharp pain it caused her knees. She just wanted to curl up and disappear, to be millions of miles away floating listlessly amongst the stars. Instead she was sobbing on the floor in front of strangers and the one person she believed she had hurt the most.

Her chest ached and her breath was coming in uneven gasps; her whole body was convulsing from her sobs, the jerky movements and stress only worsening her headache. The agony and misery seemed never-ending and inescapable. It didn't matter whether she was on Earth or trillions of miles away from home on a different planet: her pain and regret and guilt remained with her. Everything still hurt so, so much…And then she finally cracked under the pressure.

"Takashi, h-honto ni gomen ne…" Mari bawled, startling everyone as she suddenly spoke in an unfamiliar tongue. "G-Gomen nasai. Tasukete…Tasukete kudasai, Takashi. Zenshin ga itai…Itai, itai, itai!"

Not even missing a beat, Shiro knelt down next to his quivering and crying little sister and brought her close. "Shhhh, it's okay, it's okay," he murmured, cradling her and rocking back and forth slightly. "I'm here, niisan is here. Itaino, itaino tondeke."

His own eyes stung with tears, his heart clenching from her desperate pleas and broken state. They really shouldn't have pried into her memories like that, and for a moment Shiro felt guilty. But that feeling was quickly overshadowed by immense relief, and he was glad that they had snooped. Because of it, Mari was finally reaching out to him and asking for help; they were one step closer to mending the rift in their relationship and making the pain of the past fly away.

"Don't cry, it's all right, Mariko," Shiro continued to hush her gently, her sobs getting softer with each passing minute. Then smiling wryly to himself he said jokingly, "You're gonna give me more white hairs if you keep scaring me like this."

Mari sniffled and uttered an almost indiscernible, "Gomen."

"I was just kidding," he said, chuckling before planting a kiss on her forehead. When she said nothing and her weeping had been reduced to soft whimpers, he added, "Besides, I should be the one apologizing, not you. I'm the older brother: I'm supposed to take care of you and look out for you, but I never even knew mom treated you so horribly. All this time and I never even noticed how much agony you were in. Why didn't you ever tell me, Mari?"

"I-I didn't want to bother you…" came her muffled reply as she buried her face in his shoulder, too ashamed and upset to bring herself to look at him. "I only cause you trouble."

"A little, yeah, but I don't mind. It's never anything serious," Shiro tried to assure her. "Even though we annoy each other sometimes, I could never hate you for anything that you do."

"Yeah," Pidge chimed in, moving to sit down next to them. "Matt and I got on each other's nerves all the time, and we still love each other."

"Besides, siblings are supposed to give each other trouble," Lance spoke up, smiling warmly as he followed Pidge's lead and sat down beside them as well. "Especially younger siblings. Wrecking havoc for our older sibs is just a part of our jobs."

Pidge grinned and nodded in complete agreement. Mari sniffed and chanced a glance at them but remained quiet, her eyes red-rimmed and her face flushed.

"If you're ever in pain, don't be afraid to tell us about it, okay? It's not good to hold things in," Shiro encouraged her softly. "We're all here to help you, no matter the problem. We all look out for each other. That's what teammates and family are for, right?"

Mari gave the barest of nods, suddenly timid and feeling smaller than usual in her brother's arms. Shiro let out a sigh of relief, glad that she was finally taking his words to heart, and he smiled. He hugged her a bit tighter, wanting to make sure that she was being reassured, that she knew that she was loved and that he would always be here for her. Pidge and Lance were quick to follow, wrapping their arms around the siblings as well and sharing the love.

"Awww, I've gotta get in on this. Group hug!" Hunk exclaimed, and he nearly tackled the four of them as he joined in on the team embrace. Allura and Coran exchanged knowing smiles before joining in, leaving Keith as the only outlier.

"You're the only one left, Mullet," Lance grinned and Keith bristled. "What are you doing over there? C'mon and join the hug fest!"

"I'd rather not," he replied bluntly, his uncomfortableness with the whole situation evident.

"Don't be such a sour puss," Lance chided.

"Yeah! Get over her and feel the love!" Pidge insisted with a laugh.

Keith grimaced at the thought and he racked his brain for possible ways to gracefully escape being forced into the team huddle. His gaze fell on Mari who looked so small and rather smushed in the center of the group. Their eyes locked for an instant before she looked away in embarrassment, her face turning an even deeper crimson than before, and his guilt from early flared once more.

Shiro's my friend. Why wouldn't I care that his stupid little sister is potentially causing him more trouble?

Despite Mari not remembering it and the lack of seriousness behind the statement, he had still thoughtlessly said something that ended up being very hurtful to her. And in her anger and pain she had lashed out at him, and Keith had been too focused on himself—how he was feeling—to look past her cruel words and notice how deep of an impact his remark had on her. Then to make matters worse he had left her on the cliff, probably causing her to think that she had been abandoned completely.

Mari had endured so much strife up until now and she needed the support. The least he could do was help reassure her and let her know that she could count on the whole team to be there for her.

So with the guilt winning over and propelling him forward, Keith sighed and silently knelt down on the floor to join the group hug.

**Author's note: So I made it a thing that Mari slips into speaking Japanese when she gets really distressed. This is what she said to Shiro:

"Takashi, I am really sorry…I am sorry. Help…Please help me, Takashi. Everything hurts…It hurts, it hurts, it hurts!"

And then here are a few more translations:

Gomen= Sorry

Itaino, itaino tondeke=pain, pain, go/fly away

Anyways, feel free to add a comment/review down below and tell me what you think! :D Your input is always appreciated!